Sergeant smack, p.1
Sergeant Smack, page 1
SERGEANT SMACK
The Legendary Lives and Times of Ike Atkinson,
Kingpin, and His Band of Brothers
By Ron Chepesiuk
Strategic Media, Inc.
Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Thunder Bay, Canada
Copyright 2010 by Ron Chepesiuk
All Rights Reserved
Published by Strategic Media Inc.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast.
Requests for permission should be directed to strategicmediabooks@gmail.com, or mailed to Strategic Media Inc., 782 Wofford St., Rock Hill Sc 29730.
13-digit ISBN 978-0-984-2333-1-1
10-digit ISBN 0-984-2333-1-8
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT SERGEANT SMACK
“Ron Chepesiuk is one of the premiere true crime investigative journalists, and he proves it with this new book. Sergeant Smack is a great story and brilliantly written. The book shows that fact can be more entering than fiction.”
—Jason Brooks, director of the documentary, Kingpins (the story of Freddie Myers)
“Sergeant Smack is meticulously researched, and Chepesiuk’s prodding for the truth makes it an excellent non-fiction crime story. Along with a compelling history of Ike Atkinson’s life and criminal career in drug smuggling, the author has managed to put the truth to numerous falsehoods contained in the major movie about the life of Frank Lucas, American Gangster.”
—Jack Toal, retired DEA agent who worked the investigation of Frank Lucas.
“Sergeant Smack is a riveting account of little known but legendary drug kingpin Ike Atkinson. In his latest book, Chepesiuk has once again used his investigative journalist skills to unearth the true story behind the Atkinson drug band and to dispel the many myths that have been purported by the media and Hollywood regarding the Asian-American heroin trade. Using exclusive interviews with Atkinson himself, as well as numerous agents who investigated him, Chepesiuk takes the reader inside the mind of a drug trafficker as he establishes his empire.”
—David Weeks, author of Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities of Players, Other Personnel and Spectators in Amateur and Professional Baseball, 1862-200
“As a 25-year veteran of the DEA, I congratulate Ron on setting the record straight on the true story of the ‘American Gangster.’ By interviewing former DEA agents, drug kingpins and reviewing public documents, Ron has accurately captured the role of the gangsters and the investigative strategy implemented by the DEA that led to the dismantling of this complex international heroin organization. This is a must read for anyone interested in the true story of the chess game between the international drug kingpin the 1970s and the DEA agents who took him down.”
—Lew Rice, former DEA Special Agent in Charge and author of DEA Special Agent: My Life on the Front Line
Table of Contents
What They Say About Sergeant Smack
Cast of Characters
Strange Encounters of a Cadaver Kind
The Formative Years
In the Army
Bangkok Calling
Switching Gears
The Investigation Begins
Busted in the Big Apple
The Denver Connection
The Nail in the Coffin
American Gangster Revisited
New Kid on the Block
Going Postal
The Teakwood Connection
The Sting
Takedown
Behind Bars
What Goes Around
Revival
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Selected Bibliography
About The Author
For Magdalena, my wife, my love and my inspiration
“Crime is no more easily hidden than in a crowd.”
—Anonymous
CAST OF CHARACTERS
KINGPIN
Leslie “Ike” Atkinson—Charismatic retired U.S. Army Sergeant, gambler, adventurer and leader of an African-American drug trafficking organization that, according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) assessments, evolved into a $400 million heroin smuggling organization. Ike was a partner of William Herman Jackson and was responsible for smuggling heroin from Thailand to the U.S. and for its wholesale distribution within the country. Ike took over the entire operation after the arrest of partner Jackson in 1972. The media and law enforcement dubbed Atkinson “Sergeant Smack.”
PARTNERS
William Herman Jackson—Nicknamed “Jack,” Jackson was Atkinson’s U.S. Army buddy and partner in crime who talked Atkinson into moving to Bangkok in the late 1960s. Jack established Jack’s American Star Bar in Bangkok, Thailand, and with Ike, he launched the heroin smuggling empire that became the largest Asian-U.S. heroin connection ever uncovered. Jackson was busted in Denver in 1972.
Luchai Rubiwat—A Thai-Chinese businessman who was a partner in Jack’s American Star Bar in Bangkok, Thailand, and a close drug trafficking partner of Atkinson and his associates. Luchai became responsible for obtaining drugs for Atkinson after Herman Jackson’s arrest. Luchai was arrested in an undercover sting in San Francisco.
James Warren Smedley—An ex-U.S. Army soldier, Ike’s buddy, a key member of Ike’s drug trafficking organization and partner and manager of Jack’s American Star Bar.
BAND OF BROTHERS
“Berlin”—Gambler and hustler who operated in Europe. Real name unknown.
Pratt Benthall—Ike’s New Jersey-based friend and drug trafficker.
Dan Burch—Professional gambler and drug dealer from Dayton, Ohio, who taught Ike how to sew false bottom into AWOL bags so they could hide heroin.
Lorenzo Bowers—A Federal prisoner serving a life-term who befriended Ike in prison.
Leon Ellis—Master woodworker from North Carolina who came to Bangkok to help build false bottoms into teakwood furniture so they could hide heroin.
Herman Lee Gaillard—Nicknamed “Peter Rabbit,” Galliard, from La Grange, North Carolina, was a member of Ike’s organization.
Andrew Price—Half brother of William Herman Jackson and a key operative within the Atkinson drug ring in Bangkok.
Rudolph Valentino Jennings—A Bangkok-based operative for Sergeant Smack’s heroin ring who came to Bangkok and was responsible for fitting the false bottoms of AWOL bags for heroin shipments.
Robert Johnson—Retired U.S. airman from Greensboro North Carolina, whom Ike considered one of the biggest hustlers in Europe. Johnson later moved to Bangkok.
John Roy—a gambler and hustler who was the only white member of Ike’s “Band of Brothers.”
Ed Russell—Gambler and hustler who became friends with Ike in Europe.
Joe Stasi—Soldier in La Cosa Nostra who became good friends with Ike while they served time together in various prisons.
Ellis Sutton—North Carolina native, drug dealer and Ike’s friend and associate with whom Ike had an ambivalent relationship.
Thomas Southerland—Ike’s friend whom Ike considered to be like a son and who worked for Ike’s organization.
Eddie Wooten—Ike’s friend and major drug trafficker from Washington, DC, who used the U.S. military base at Okinawa, Japan, as a base to transport heroin to U.S.
FAMILY
Atha Atkinson—Ike’s second wife.
Dallas Atkinson—One of Ike’s three older brothers.
Edward Atkinson—One of Ike’s three older brothers.
Ezzell Atkinson—One of Ike’s three older brothers.
Helen Atkinson—Ike’s first wife.
Jimmy Atkinson—Ike’s nephew and son of Dallas.
Juanita Atkinson—Wife of Dallas Atkinson.
Larry Atkinson—Ike’s nephew and Dallas’s son who introduced Ike to Frank Lucas.
Linda Atkinson—Married to Larry Atkinson.
Pearl Parks Atkinson—Ike’s sister who lived in NY.
Philip Wade Atkinson—Ike’s nephew and Edward’s son.
ASSOCIATES
Samuel Arrante—Civilian prison employee at Otisville Federal Penitentiary whom Ike recruited to smuggle letters out of the prison.
Cleophus Batton—Husband of Saveneeya “Ponsi” Batton.
Saveneeya “Ponsi” Batton—Longtime employee of Jack’s American Star Bar whom Ike later recruited for the drug ring he tried to revive while incarcerated at Otisville Federal Penitentiary in Otisville, New York.
William Kelley Brown—U.S. Army Sergeant assigned to the SEATO medical research facility in Thailand who agreed to move heroin in teakwood furniture for Ike’s drug ring.
Leon Cohen—Atlanta businessman who successfully scammed Ike out of nearly $1 million while Ike was incarcerated in Atlanta, Georgia’s Federal Penitentiary.
Gerald Gainous—U.S. Army Master Sergeant involved with Jackson’s Denver heroin smuggling run.
Charles Murphy Gillis—U.S. Army Master Sergeant from Goldsboro, North Carolina, who worked for Ike’s drug ring.
Laura Holmes—Goldsboro native and girlfriend of William Herman Jackson who worked for the Ike drug ring.
Herbert Houseton—A Bangkok-based U.S. Army Post Office (APO) employee who helped Ike’s drug ring move drugs to the U.S. via the U.S. postal system.
Frank Lucas—Heroin tra
Vernon “Shorty” Lucas—Frank Lucas’s brother who bought drugs form Ike’s organization.
James McArthur—U.S. Army Sergeant stationed in Bangkok who brought packages for Herbert Houseton to ship to the U.S.
Jasper Myrick—Bangkok-based U.S. Army Sergeant who agreed to ship heroin back to the U.S. in teakwood furniture. Arrested by Thai police at his home with one of the biggest amounts of heroin ever seized in Thailand.
Papa San—Shadowy relative of Nitaya Jackson, William Herman Jackson Thai-Chinese wife, who initially supplied the heroin for Atkinson-Jackson drug ring.
Robert Ernest Patterson—Administrative Specialist in the U.S. Army Post Office in Bangkok.
Chalermphol Phitastrakul—Thai drug courier who, along with Luchai Rubiwat, was busted in San Francisco for heroin trafficking.
Sylvester “Mumbles” Searles—A Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force assigned to U-Tapao Air Base in Thailand whom Jackson recruited for his Denver heroin drug run.
Freddie Thornton—U.S. Air Force NCO who smuggled heroin for Atkinson while he was on active duty, then became heir apparent to head the Bangkok end of the Atkinson heroin smuggling organization. Thornton was the principle witness against Atkinson at the Federal trial in North Carolina.
Johnny Trice—Sergeant in U.S. military assigned to U-Tapao Air Base whom William Herman Jackson recruited for the Denver heroin drug run.
Martin Trowery—Major drug trafficker from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who bought his heroin from Ike’s drug ring.
William “Dog” Turner—Major drug trafficker from Washington, DC who bought his heroin from Ike’s drug ring.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND U.S. OFFICIALS
Don Ashton—A U.S. DEA special agent in charge of the Wilmington, North Carolina office in the early and mid 1970s. Ashton was “field commander” of CENTAC 9, a DEA headquarters-based operation that coordinated the worldwide investigation of Ike Atkinson’s international drug network.
Lebert Baxter—Base Commander and Head of Personal Effects Department at Tan Son Nhut Mortuary in Vietnam.
Paul Brown—DEA supervisory special agent assigned to the Agency’s Bangkok office from 1970 to 1976.
Gary Fouse—DEA special agent who worked in the Agency’s Bangkok office and helped investigate the Jason Myrick heroin seizure in 1975.
Dennis Hart—New York-based U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD) special agent and partner of Richard Hart, who was prosecuted in Federal Court in a New York City but was found innocent.
Doug Howard—Deputy Director, U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Center in Fort Lee, Virginia, who worked at Tan Son Nhut Mortuary in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Charles “Chuck” Lutz—U.S. DEA special agent in the Agency’s Bangkok office in the mid-1970s who led the investigation of Atkinson’s drug ring in Thailand. He also partnered with Lionel Stewart on the Luchai Rubiwat undercover investigation.
Richard Patch—New York City-based BNDD special agent and Dennis Hart’s partner who was prosecuted for corruption in a New York court but was found innocent.
Wolfgang Preisler—New York-based DEA special agent, fluent in German, who, posing undercover as a West German diplomat, was hired by Atkinson to revive his drug smuggling operation.
Brian Raftery—DEA special agent who worked in the Bangkok office in the 1970s and assisted in the investigation of the heroin seized from Jasper Myrick.
Lew Rice—New York-based DEA special agent who investigated Frank Lucas.
Michael Schwartz—U.S. Customs agent who investigated William Herman Jackson and the Denver heroin connection.
Lionel Stewart—DEA special agent who was sent to Bangkok to infiltrate the Ike Atkinson organization. Stewart made undercover purchases of heroin from Luchai Rubiwat that led to Luchai’s conviction in San Francisco, California. Stewart also contributed evidence to the successful conspiracy prosecution of Atkinson and his associates in North Carolina.
Joe Sullivan—A DEA special agent who worked in Harlem, New York City, in the mid 1970s and investigated drug trafficker Frank Lucas.
Howard Wright—U.S. Customs special agent who investigated Atkinson’s drug ring and its alleged cadaver-heroin connection.
PROSECUTORS AND DEFENSE LAWYERS
Joe Cheshire—Raleigh, North Carolina lawyer who represented Ike’s brother Edward Atkinson against drug trafficking charges.
Paul Cooper—Assistant U.S. Attorney assigned to the Denver office who successfully prosecuted William Herman Jackson in the Denver heroin case.
Christine Whitcover Dean—Federal Prosecutor who assisted in the prosecution of Ike Atkinson and several of his associates in North Carolina.
Joe Dean—Assistant U.S. Attorney who successfully prosecuted Ike Atkinson and associates in a North Carolina court trial.
Dennis Dillon—Assistant U.S. Attorney from Eastern District of New York who prosecuted Richard Patch and Dennis Hart.
Howard Diller—One of Ike’s many lawyers who was based in New York City.
Wilber Cleo Fuller—One of Ike’s many lawyers who was based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Stanley Galkin—Atlanta lawyer who represented Leon Cohen in Cohen’s successful effort to scam Ike out of nearly $1 million while Ike was incarcerated in Atlanta, Georgia’s Federal Penitentiary.
Sterling Johnson—A former Federal judge in New York City who presided over the Frank Lucas trial in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
John McConnell—Ike’s Raleigh, North Carolina-based lawyer who helped Ike and Frank Lucas launder money in the Grand Cayman Islands.
Tom McNamara—A North Carolina-based Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted Ike.
Mike Nerney—A San Francisco, California-based Assistant U.S. Attorney who assisted DEA agents Charles Lutz and Lionel Stewart in the Luchai Rubiwat drug trafficking investigation and successfully prosecuted Luchai in San Francisco.
Stephen Nimocks—Fayetteville, North Carolina lawyer who represented Ike in North Carolina drug cases.
Tolbert Smith—Another of Ike’s many lawyers.
JOURNALISTS
Al Dawson—Journalist for United Press International who covered rumors of the cadaver-heroin connection but found no evidence it existed.
Peter Finucane—Bangkok Post journalist and friend of Jimmy Smedley.
John McBeth—A reporter for Asian Week magazine and friend of Jimmy Smedley who covered the takedown of the Ike Atkinson drug ring in Thailand.
CADAVER-HEROIN CONNECTION THEORISTS
Dan Addario—DEA special agent in charge of the Bangkok, Thailand Regional Office in the mid 1970s who wrote about discovering heroin in the body of a dead U.S. GI in a Bangkok hospital in the fall of 1974.
Bob Kirkconnell—Retired Army Master Sergeant who claims that in 1972 or 1973 he was involved in an investigation at the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa of heroin being smuggled into the U.S. using “killed in action human remains.”
Michael Levine—DEA special agent who claims the U.S. CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) was involved in the alleged cadaver-heroin connection.
Michael Marr—Assistant District Attorney for the District of Maryland who suspected Ike of moving heroin in the coffins of dead U.S. servicemen.
Helen Stoeckley—Woman who claimed knowledge of the murder of the family of U.S. Army officer and medical doctor, Jeffrey MacDonald, in 1970. She also claimed that Ike Atkinson’s drug ring smuggled heroin in the bodies of dead U.S. servicemen in Vietnam to the U.S. via Fort Bragg.
